a small adventure in Colorado pt 2

[buckyball1]

Next day, it was off to the town of Fairplay (middle of nowhere-see pic), up the Guenella Pass to 11K+ and then an attempt on Bierstadt--my first 14K peak. The hike was gorgeous and what i'd consider moderately strenuous except for the altitude which made it a different ballgame. Again good trail save for the large untrailed NH style summit cone (starting at 13,900), but damn, it seemed slow going even though i was doing relatively well. I was gagging up the last set of rocks and thankful just to fall down on the summit--again, superlative views, everywhere--it's just endless out there. I also found a huge number of people in way over their head on this and other climbs and unable or unwilling to realize that fact--they eventually go down the hill long before the summits.

nowhere in Fairplay

looking up toward Bierstadt

pooped on Bierstadt summit

I spent a night at 10,200 near Breckenridge (dripping with $$ and not very nice folks) and headed off to Kite Lake-at 12K and the end of a long dirt road from Alma. The site is surrounded by a cirque of 4 x 14K peaks--takes your breath away. I planned to climb only Democrat after yesterday's mini struggle. The hike went very well--all in the open on scree above treeline. I actually felt almost normal and was pleased to reach the summit quickly with a little style after the painful slog on Bierstadt. Had I know how good i'd feel, i would have considered running 3, maybe all 4 peaks--none-the -less, very happy for what i was able to do

Kite Lake and 14Ks

Democrat

view from trail to Democrat

Democrat summit

I visited Buena Vista (nice little place near the Collegiate Range), Leadville (home of the bike and running 100 mile races and too touristy for me) Boulder (check out Celestila Seasonings tea tour) and then Nederland back in the Front Range(good rock shop), a great little town.

Happy to have made this little journey. I was a bit awed at the large, desolate spaces in many areas i visited-made me feel very alone and sad at times. The real local folks were great to me, but many of the "newbies" (both in Towns-Boulder, yuck!-and in the mountains, had attitude, too much money and appeared the epitome of entitled brats-very sad)--as always, happy to be home in ME

hope the pics aren't crazy large, never tried any before

jim

 

[TrailwrightBratt]

Great going

Congrats.Peg and I was just on Elbert last week and experienced AAAAAAltitude,It was fun just the same.Acclimated on Mt.Evans and it helped.Camped it Elbert Creek C.G. that also helped.
If I can figure out how to add pictures to a thread I would like to share ours along with our Account of the trip.
Really enjoyed the Pics thanks for sharing them.

 

[audrey]

Very nice, and I'm jealous of your 14K'er. When we were out there in July, I got very comfortable at just over 12K, and I think I could have made it up Handies Peak, but the road in was so god-awful that we abandoned the plan.

Oh, and remember to include a couple of flower pics for us plant geeks next time, please?

 

[jniehof]

You got much better views from Democrat than I did. Isn't the scenery off to the west spectacular?

Lincoln's not really a bad out-and-back from Cameron, maybe thirty minutes? and you don't regain the elevation if you continue to Bross, so this really is a "one or four" kind of trip. Once you break 13800 on Cameron, though, you don't go below it until descent from Bross. That's a lot of time as close to 14 as makes no difference. Said descent is very loose and if you're too tired to go scree-dancing can be very slow. So I think you made a good call there.

Your pictures of the Cameron Ampitheatre remind me of what I found sad about Colorado: there's a real overuse problem of herd paths all over, shortcut switchbacks, etc. It seems, oddly enough, there's less of a conservation ethic there than in NH.

 

[audrey]

After seeing some of the ATV and ORV damage done in SW Colorado, I asked the rangers about it and they told us about the efforts that go into trying to stem the abuse. There is so much space and so many entry points that it's a herculean task.

On the bright side, we hiked some beautiful tundra on recovering old mining roads that are obviously respected and haven't seen wheels in a long time.

 

[una_dogger]

Love love love Colorado..great pics!!

When I die I want to be buried in a Tuff Shed in Ned.